Macworld 2007 Keynote

Well, for starters I am suprised the apple tv costs so much, more than a wii!
It also had alot more computing power and such then I expected it would need to do what it does.

Now the more interesting and exciting announcement, the iPhone.
Talk about a big leap forward. I'm interested to see more of the internet functionality, specificly whether it will be able the strem music through Pandora. I wonder why Jobs didn't give the built in camera more than a passing mention. I don't have a cellphone or an iPod, but/so I will definitely look into getting one of these things when it comes out (in June )
What features do you expect the/want them to add in the 2nd generation model.
I expect more memory (duh) and GPS functionality.

Unfortunately both products seem to be aimed purely at the US market for now.

Personally I see no point in the Apple TV. My current DVD watching technique of walking through to get a DVD of the shelf and then back through to the DVD player works fine for me. Often repeated content such as music makes sense stored all in one place but not DVDs which may only be viewed every 6 months or so. Downloadable content only works if there is some way of replacing it at no cost should something happen to the hard drive. Also relying on an internet connection in order to get the content is not good if the internet connection is not up to it.

I would guess not much was made of the camera as it would be handled just the same as existing phones - point and click. All the other stuff demonstrated had a new twist to it.

By the time the iPhone reaches the UK then it will be worth holding on the extra few months for the 2nd generation model to appear.

I would like to actually try one out though instead of just viewing the demos on the website - especially as the demos are full of so called cute children pictures that just make me want to turn it off.

Andrew, he used an Apple symbol--it just probably displayed incorrectly for you.

re:the keynote-- It seemed fairly dissappointing computer-wise. I was hoping to hear about Leopard and a new laptop. Perhaps less glitzy announcements will be made about those soon. Still, I would have liked to hear Steve talk 'em up.

I think one big area holding back the power of the iPhone is that the US are so backwards with their mobile phone technology, business practices and uptake compared to Europe. If the phone had been designed with Europe as the initial market then it would have been so much better.

I wish companies would stop making shiny plastic toys. I'd prefer matte finish plastic toys. I can't stand how the shiny plastic feels or how it looks after touching it. Greasy plastic. It's not a good thing. I don't like holding my Apple Remote or my Nintendo DS Lite because of it. I am admittedly overly sensitive to that type of thing, though. Does it bug anyone else?

Regarding the ï£¿tv, I am very happy with just using a Mac mini to do the job and won't bother with it until it does something cooler. I was saddened that the version of Front Row didn't fix my personal issues with using it: cropped long file names, poor organization features, and a very lackluster remote control. (I wish it had a scroll wheel... it'd be perfect.) The arbitrary limitation of streaming from 5 computers seems rather weird, too. Not that I have that many I'd like to stream from, but it's just odd to me. Anyone have some insight?

aarku Wrote:The arbitrary limitation of streaming from 5 computers seems rather weird, too. Not that I have that many I'd like to stream from, but it's just odd to me. Anyone have some insight?

Complete wild speculation here, but music downloaded from iTMS can be played on a maximum of 5 authorised computers. Maybe the same kind of limit applies to video content and the Apple TV uses this authorisation in some way?

Viewing the forums on a non Apple computer causes the ? issue to appear. It is going to get very annoying really quickly seeing question marks all over the place.

ferum Wrote:Neither do I. I suppose it might be convient if you have tons of movies and tv shows downloaded from iTunes, but I have never downloaded anything from the iTunes store.

I have a fair bit of video content that I'd like to watch on a larger screen than the 15" LCD on my MacBook Pro. The ï£¿tv will save me the trouble of moving computers to and from the living room every time I want to watch something. $300 is admittedly a bit much for that convenience, but I happened to have a little bit of extra money to burn.

I haven't ever downloaded anything from the iTunes store, but I'll probably check it out when the ï£¿tv arrives. Sounds like they might have some worthwhile stuff available by now.

Andrew Sage Wrote:Viewing the forums on a non Apple computer causes the ? issue to appear. It is going to get very annoying really quickly seeing question marks all over the place.

Being a Mac game development forum, most users will be viewing it from an Apple computer.

ThemsAllTook Wrote:Being a Mac game development forum, most users will be viewing it from an Apple computer.

Not all of us are lucky enough to use Macs at work which is why we end up having to spent so much time viewing the forums from non Apple computers. If I remember correctly even the man behind this site had to use a non Apple computer to access it for so long. Anyway I'm sure it is just something we will have to get used to along with missing upper case characters and such things

ThemsAllTook Wrote:I haven't ever downloaded anything from the iTunes store, but I'll probably check it out when the ï£¿tv arrives. Sounds like they might have some worthwhile stuff available by now.

Just a note, if it's anything like Front Row, you might be able to play any movie you have in your Movies folder that QuickTime can understand. That'd be a desirable feature for me, but even then I doubt I could install new codecs on the ï£¿tv, which decreases its appeal.

Anyone else sick of iTunes turning into a do-all app? I blame the Windows port. The sync stuff should be in iSync.

aarku Wrote:Just a note, if it's anything like Front Row, you might be able to play any movie you have in your Movies folder that QuickTime can understand. That'd be a desirable feature for me, but even then I doubt I could install new codecs on the ï£¿tv, which decreases its appeal.

Ooh, interesting. I just assumed it would be able to play arbitrary video. If it can't, that would decrease its usefulness by quite a bit.

If I can't install QuickTime components on it, I guess I'll have to convert stuff before playing it, assuming it can be played at all.

The only two features of the Apple TV that I can see that will fill a gap are that it outputs in component video and HDMI (for use with HDTV's), and that it can get protected content easily from iTMS to my TV. I download stuff from iTMS regularly. One of the things I got into was TV shows -- specifically Lost. Right now, the only way I can *practically* watch those on my TV is by plugging in my video iPod, which only puts out 320 x 240 rez, which works but ain't great. To me, the two biggest downers to the Apple TV are that it apparently only outputs 720p (lame, should be at least 1080i), and that it doesn't have a built-in DVD player (WTF?). Another feature I was expecting, but haven't noticed yet for the Apple TV, would be firewire cable box DVR capability. While firewire output for consumer recording from digital content providers is mandated by law, perhaps cable companies' desire to bury that feature has made it impractical at this point, I dunno... but it would be nice. Anyway, I too feel the price is high for what it is. For $100 more you can get a full-system Xbox 360 and stream HD from Windows Media Center, although admittedly, that won't play iTMS content. But Microsoft has movies and stuff that can be downloaded directly to the Xbox, including IPTV to come, so no computer needed anyway! I am concerned that Apple may have dropped the ball with the Apple TV. We'll see...

As for the iPhone? I want one. The only things for me not to like are the price, and that 8 Gigs just ain't enough anymore. Too bad they don't have an 80 GB model like the video iPod! Oh, and that it's locked into a single carrier in the US -- Cingular. Not that I don't like Cingular, but I've been very happy with Alltel.

And where are the games for the iPhone?! For something as powerful as it, surely Steve could have demoed a game or two. I understand it has Cocoa and CoreImage capability, so perhaps we will get to see some serious mobile gaming going on there in the future?